The assessment of type a behavior and the prediction of coronary heart disease: A review

The literature regarding the Type A behavior pattern and its association with the incidence of coronary disease has been accumulating for over 20 years. For any researcher contemplating the investigation of this syndrome and its pathological implications, a daunting and time-consuming task is presented in deciding which Type A measurement technique to use to identify Type A individuals. This article is designed to aid this process by presenting a review of all the prospectively validated Type A measures that have been shown to be predictive of coronary disease. Each measure is described, its development is outlined, and its advantages, disadvantages, and limitations are highlighted. This work was supported by a grant from the Health Education Council, London, under the supervision of Professor J.R. Eiser at the Department of Psychology, University of Exeter.     

SACRAL: toward the meaning and measurement of friendliness

Friendliness was regarded as a construct or dispositional tendency consisting of four components: Self-concept (S), the person's beliefs about self related to peer relationships; Accessibility (AC), giving behaviors involving attention and respect; Rewardingness (R), the giving of more tangible rewards, such as money and compliments; and Alienation (AL), personal beliefs about acceptance and the world as a friendly place. A 40-item questionnaire was developed to assess these components of friendliness. Studies of the questionnaire with college students and children supported its internal consistency, test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, construct validity, and discriminant validity. Although virtually all respondents reported themselves as friendly, high SACRAL scorers, when compared with low scorers, less frequently experience loneliness and in a variety of contexts claim to be more apt to engage in friendly behaviors. The impression that emerges of relatively low scorers on SACRAL is of people whose professed actions are somewhat inconsistent with their personal beliefs.     

Dependence patterns in consumer behavior: exploration and refinement of a concept

• Dependency is proposed as an implicit yet undeveloped concept important in understanding consumer behavior. The development of this idea takes as a jumping‐off point, the family life cycle literature because it has implicitly recognized the importance of dependent children. A taxonomy of dependence is offered as several propositions regarding dependency patterns. While the central offering of this paper is theoretical, the concept is explored via focus groups with 24 women. Findings suggest that the concept is worthy of future development.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hostile aggression and type A behavior

Type A and Type B male college students were given the opportunity to display hostile aggression against an insulting confederate on a bogus ESP task, using either aversive noise or a monetary penalty. Preliminary correlational analyses confirmed that Ss' aggressive responding covaried directly with their reported desire to hurt the confederate but was, in contrast, unrelated to their reported desire to help the confederate. Thus, Ss' aggressive behavior was motivated by hostile intentions. Subsequent analyses revealed that Type As were more aggressive and reported a greater desire to hurt the confederate than Type Bs, regardless of the mode of aggression. These data support the results of a recent study which questioned the intuitively appealing assumption that Type As should only display aggressive behavior when motivated by some external achievement goal.     

A solution-focused approach to rational-emotive behavior therapy: toward a theoretical integration

A theoretical integration of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) and solution-focused therapy is described. It is suggested that the integrative conceptualization underscores these models’ complementary aspects by addressing the limitations of each and enhancing their respective strengths. The clinical theory and process of the integrative model is explicated along with a case example. Directions for future theory building, research, and practice are considered. Address correspondence to Jeffrey T. Guterman, Barry University, 11300 NE 2 Avenue, Adrian Dominican School of Education, Counseling Program, Powers Building, Miami Shores, FL 33161–6695, USA; e-mail: jguterman@mail.barry.edu     

Atttudes and behavior: Implications of attitudes toward behavioral alternatives

The relationship between attitudes and behavior was considered. An attitudinal model of behavioral alternatives was presented and its applied and theoretical implications explicated. Three investigations were reported that tested the initial viability of the approach. Support for the model was observed in all three investigations.     

Psychological type and attitude toward Christianity: a replication

A sample of 149 university students completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales together with the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity. The data indicated that university students classified as Feeling Types hold a more positive attitude toward Christianity than those classified as Thinking Types. These findings replicate the 1999 report of Jones and Francis.     

A micro-level simulation for the prediction of intention and behavior

In this contribution we aim at anchoring Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) simulations in actual models of human psychology. More specifically, we apply unidirectional ABM to social psychological models using low level agents (i.e., intra-individual) to examine whether they generate better predictions, in comparison to standard statistical approaches, concerning the intentions of performing a behavior and the behavior. Moreover, this contribution tests to what extent the predictive validity of models of attitude such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) or Model of Goal-directed Behavior (MGB) depends on the assumption that peoples’ decisions and actions are purely rational. Simulations were therefore run by considering different deviations from rationality of the agents with a trembling hand method. Two data sets concerning respectively the consumption of soft drinks and physical activity were used. Three key findings emerged from the simulations. First, compared to standard statistical approach the agent-based simulation generally improves the prediction of behavior from intention. Second, the improvement in prediction is inversely proportional to the complexity of the underlying theoretical model. Finally, the introduction of varying degrees of deviation from rationality in agents’ behavior can lead to an improvement in the goodness of fit of the simulations. By demonstrating the potential of ABM as a complementary perspective to evaluating social psychological models, this contribution underlines the necessity of better defining agents in terms of psychological processes before examining higher levels such as the interactions between individuals.     

无聊感的自陈测量方式

自陈测量方式是无聊感研究中最早、最广泛使用的研究方法。文章中介绍了具有高信度、效度的BPS、BS、BC、JBS、LJBS、LBS、FTB和SBS等无聊感测量工具,分析了这几种自陈测量方法的优势及劣势,并对无聊感测量工具的应用和发展提出展望。     

Peer behavior toward socially anxious adolescents: classroom observations

This study focused on the relation between adolescents' social anxiety and the way they are treated by classmates. The link between class behavior during oral presentations and the social anxiety of the speakers was investigated. Social anxiety was measured both as a trait variable and as manifest in two state anxiety characteristics. A group of 55 students from Grades 8 and 9 were selected to participate in the study. Class behavior during their presentations was rated by the students themselves, their teacher, and an independent observer. Results showed that negative class behavior was related to social anxiety, particularly when behavior was rated by the independent observer. The data suggested that this negative social outcome is related to longer lasting social interactions in the classroom and not to specific state anxiety characteristics.     

Personality correlates of type A coronary-prone behavior

The study investigates the relationship between Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern and self-concept, need for approval, extroversion, neuroticism, and trait anxiety. Eighty-eight undergraduate students completed the Jenkins Activity Survey, which measures the Type A personality; the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS; Fitts, 1965); the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale; the A-Trait Scale (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970), and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. It was found that Type As scored lower on all the dimensions of self-concept except the physical. It was also found that Type Bs scored higher on need for approval, but only on its avoidance component. In addition, Type As scored higher on extroversion and on neuroticism. The implications of these results are discussed.